49ers Sign First Round LB Reuben Foster
by Cutter Hicks, Sports 1140 KHTK
The San Francisco 49ers are underway in beefing up their last-place ranked defense with the recent signing of first round pick Reuben Foster, the team announced Friday afternoon.
Foster, a linebacker freshly plucked from Alabama as the 31st pick overall, signed to a four-year deal on Friday with a 49ers option for a fifth year.
He was the second pick by San Francisco in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft behind DE Solomon Thomas from Stanford. Foster was projected to go much higher in the first round but questions surrounded him about his shoulder and a diluted drug test at the Scouting Combine.
Because he dropped deep into the first round the 49ers traded Seattle their second and fourth-round picks to call dibs on the First-Team SEC linebacker.
In 2016, he was named First-Team All-America by the Associated Press, SEC Championship Game MVP and the winner of the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker. He started all 15 games and led Alabama with 115 tackles.